PARALYSIS OF THE HIND EXTREMITIES. 
485 
It had originated in the lymph glands in the lumbar region, had partly 
destroyed the last three lumbar vertebrae and the sacrum, and had 
penetrated into the vertebral canal. 
(4) As a secondary symptom, paraplegia accompanies general paralysis 
caused by meningeal inflammation and other inflammatory changes in 
the brain, medulla oblongata, and spinal cord. Dieckerhoff found a 
gastrus larva in the cervical portion of the spinal cord in a horse. 
The reports of psychic paraplegia or nervous apoplexy of the spinal 
cord seem completely inexplicable. Failure to discover diseased con¬ 
ditions on post-mortem examination of animals dead of paraplegia in no 
way proves that such have not existed, and this is especially true of 
paraplegia due to concussion of the spinal cord. Aruch describes three 
cases of psychic paralysis in dogs following punishment. Hagen saw 
paraplegia in an old horse after fright by a locomotive. The condition 
disappeared in three days. Probably other unexplained causes were at 
work in these cases. The same is true of those cases in which para¬ 
plegia is said to have resulted from the presence of parasites (worms) in 
the bowel. Complete paraplegia has been seen in horses after power¬ 
ful electric shocks produced by lightning. Paraplegia and general 
severe nervous depression follow shocks by high-tension electric cur¬ 
rents (500 volts). Professor Cadiot recently published an interesting 
report on the subject. (See “ Jour. Comp. Path.,” and The Veterinarian, 
March, 1908.) 
Paraplegia may also follow changes in the nerves, vessels, or muscles 
of the hind limbs. As these will afterwards be considered separately it 
is only necessary here to mention lesions of the lumbo-sacral plexus and 
plugging of the aorta. 
Since olden times every permanent disturbance of function in the 
hind limbs has been described as incomplete chronic paraplegia. As a 
rule such disturbances are accompanied by peculiar irregularities in 
movement and rolling gait, but these symptoms cannot be viewed as 
characteristic of any one disease ; they may be caused in various ways. 
Without doubt change in the spinal cord plays a chief part, but unfor¬ 
tunately in this disease thorough post-mortems have not been made. 
The difficulty in movement and the course of the disease point to chronic 
morbid processes in the spinal cord. In horses, there is usually a diffi¬ 
culty in co-ordinating movement termed ataxia, similar to that in tabes 
dorsalis in man. The separate groups of muscles do not act together; 
harmony of function is wanting. 
The diseased conditions, however, to which these symptoms are due can¬ 
not merely be, as Dieckerhoff* believes, over-extension of the fasciae. In 
“ maladie du coit ” which is followed by progressive paralysis of the hind¬ 
quarters, changes have been found in the spinal cord. Haemorrhagic 
